As on many Caribbean islands, the best place to begin a walking tour of the capital city is on the pier. The pier bustles with activity whenever the ferry, Caribe Queen, arrives from the sister island of Nevis. Saturday is the busiest and most colorful day to visit the pier and the nearby marketplace. From the pier walk directly into the Pelican Mall, a converted warehouse that is now the home of the St. Kitts Department of Tourism. Literature and advice on sites to see and things to do may be obtained here. After visiting a few of the boutiques and shops in the mall, emerge onto The Bay Road, turn left and you'll come to the St. Kitts Philatelic Bureau next to the Post Office. Although St. Kitts and Nevis are one nation, each issues it own postage stamps, a unique practice that has made the stamps valued by collectors around the world. Sugarcane cultivation has all but disappeared on other Caribbean islands, but the northern part of St. Kitts is ringed by large sugar plantations. There is, in fact, so much cane on St. Kitts that, viewed from a distance, the island is a lighter hue of green than the surrounding islands. The cane rises from the coastline and continues up to the lower slopes of Mt. Liamuiga. At 3,792 feet, Mt. Liamuiga dominates the cane fields. Evidence of the mountain's younger days as an active volcano is scattered throughout the island. The Black Rocks on the Atlantic coast are the remnants of volcanic rock and lava that came crashing down the sides of Liamuiga years ago. Black sand beaches, such as those at Dieppe Bay, are composed of volcanic ash and dust. The sulphur fumes around Brimstone Hill are a reminder that activity still exists below the surface. The rain forest, along with the great profusion of ferns, lilies, and orchids, is a result of the moisture-capturing qualities of Liamuiga and the surrounding mountains. In contrast, the southern portion of the island is almost a desert. The southeastern peninsula is much lower in elevation and scrub brush and trees predominate. Deer and vervet monkeys run wild on this part of St. Kitts. Twenty-three miles long and almost seven miles wide at its widest point, St. Kitts has 68 square miles. Nevis, "The Queen of the Caribees," received its title during the colonial period when the great houses and resorts were the playgrounds of wealthy Europeans. The man-made grandeur of those days has now faded and many of the island's natural wonders have returned. There is only one large, resort-type hotel on the beach; a significant percentage of the accommodations are usually hidden away, off the main highways in restored plantation houses. The few tourist shops are small and run by locals. Even the airport is on a modest scale, allowing only small planes to land. Viewed from afar, Nevis is a perfectly circular, coneshaped island. From the cloud-enshrouded summit of Mt. Nevis, the island slopes gently down as it approaches the sea, 3,232 feet below. As on the sister island of St. Kitts, tropical rain forests cover the higher elevations, while the summit of Mt. Nevis is elfin woodland. Wild vervet monkeys inhabit the rain forest areas. When Columbus sailed by the island in 1493, its cloud-capped peak reminded him of the snowcovered summits of the Pyrenees in Spain, so he called it "Nuestra Senora de las Nieves" (Our Lady of the Snows). Through time this eventually became, simply, Nevis. Before the arrival of Europeans, the Carib Indians had called their island "Oualie," the Land of Beautiful Water. All of the best walks and hikes are described on these two remrkable islands, along with the practical information you need.